Increased EU sanctions against Syria; evidence of more imperialism by Cherokeetears

Despite the fact that the EU has been dealing malevolently with protests in the last year and a half, they nevertheless have no problem applying a double standard to the Syrian government’s response to protests. It’s easy to condemn the suppression of protestors without acknowledging the domestic protest violence that the EU has been continually dealing with. Protests in Greece, Portugal, and France over the last year have met incredible amounts of police suppression, yet when Syria acts the same way, sanctions are imposed.

Syria’s Ba’ath Party is simply coming under attack by First World imperialism, just like Afghanistan, Iraq, Venezuela, Egypt, and Libya before. Imperialists are continuing to fight for the “freedom of speech” that they deny their own citizens. It’s easy for the EU to forget the three deaths from the Greek Protests1, the 65 deaths from the fire that the state so incompetently failed to prevent in 20072 and the authorities’ reaction to the protests that followed. It’s easy for the EU to forget the repression of protests in Portugal, Spain, and France; it’s easy for the First World to forget the 1999 WTO suppression of protests in Seattle. The First World forgets a lot when it’s telling others what to do.

Police Brutality in Barcelona

It is important to distinguish that these protests are First World protests working for nothing more than a larger piece of the pie and “austerity reform,” but the EU’s actions are hypocritical nonetheless. The deaths of protesters this week is nothing compared to the deaths that occur at the hands of imperialism every day. NATO has been responsible for the deaths of 700 civilians in Libya so far in the Civil War backed by imperialism.3 UN sanctions in the past have been the cause of the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children. 4 Yes, imperialist backed protestors have died in the wake of violent protests in Syria, but how many deaths have been the result of imperialism? How many deaths have been the result of First World parasitism? How many deaths have been the result of capitalism? Many more.

The EU needs to learn to choose their words and actions wisely, since they have had to eat them in the past, and will have to eat them in the future.